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Help With Apps

I’ve had the new phone for about a week now, and like it. I’ve put some apps on, but not a lot. I’m still getting used to the email and web browsing aps and will add some more as time goes on. I’ll probably resist the urge to turn it into, as a friend of mine calls his wife’s phone, “An Angry Birds machine that you can make phone calls on if you want.”

One thing I’ve noticed is the persistence, perniciously so, of some apps, especially ones that have come with the phone. For example, my phone has Facebook on it. I don’t use it, have taken it off the screen, but it’s still running and using power and memory. Probably not a lot of either, but if they’re going to load the phone up with crap I don’t want, then they should just give them out for free. I also have a Blockbuster Video app that I can uninstall updates to, but not the core app. I’m sure that there are others, but those are the two I’ve found so far.

So, is there way to dig down deep into the OS and get rid of these virus like apps? I know that there is such a thing as “rooting” a phone and I should do some research on Al Gore’s Internet and see what that’s all about, but hopefully one of my readers can help me out with that one.

The only downside to this phone is that it eats through the charge on the battery quickly. Which the sales guy told me was a problem with Android based phones. Hopefully by getting rid of some apps I don’t use and don’t want, I’ll be able to improve that a bit.

Comments

Not without rooting the phone, also note that doing so and getting rid of the bloatware may result in your Android phone not getting OS updates correctly. There are ways around that but they can get complicated.

However see if you have an app called Task Manager, it not there are a variety of similer ones you can download (I think my husband uses App Killer). Task Manager allows you to see exactly whats running, shut down one or all, AND put apps on a ‘auto end list’ that will result in them being shut down when your phone isn’t actively in use. Not as good as getting rid of them, but at least they’re not using up battery time.

I too am rockin’ an Android phone. My battery consumption got much better when I forced the beast into 3G only mode. As for apps running in the background, I’ve got a couple sources. I’ll make a few inquiries for an app killer and pass ‘em along.

Yah, turn off the wifi unless you WANT to use it. Otherwise the phone will spend lots of time trying to find the closest network to hook up to…Also unless you NEED the phone to stay on for an extended period of time after you last use it (for example you need information from an app to stay on the screen for reference) set the display shut off to 30 seconds (the default is like two minutes).

Now that I’m part of the iCult, I feel unqualified to comment on Android phones, but here are a few things I did when I was rockin’ the ‘Droid Originale’ to make my experience better:

1) I shut off Wifi and Bluetooth unless I was actually going to use them
2) I adjusted the screen brightness to 40%
3) I had “Task Killer”, the original, installed and would kill the background apps every now and then
4) I moved all the bloatware to its own screen at the very end… a screen I never went to
5) Any app that I could move to the SD card got moved

The one app I found indispensible, particularly in Baltimore at EMS Today way back in 2010 when I parked in the Arena parking lot, was Car Locator. Love that app! Other than that… well… I feel out of touch with the ‘Droid apps now so I got nuthin’.

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All About Me

After a long career as a field EMS provider, I'm now doing all that back office stuff I used to laugh at. Life is full of ironies, isn't it?
I still live in the Northeast corner of the United States, although I hope to change that to another part of the country more in tune with my values and beliefs.
I still write about EMS, but I'm adding more and more non EMS subject matter.
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